This invention relates to the sport of golf, in general, and to the practice of golf at a course or driving range, in particular.
As is well known and understood, the sport of golf has never been more popular than it is today. Whether it is because of the emergence of attractive personalities on the professional tour, whether it is because of increased television and newspaper coverage, or whether it is because of improving global economies which free up money for the purchase of the fairly expensive equipment neededxe2x80x94or for whatever the reasonxe2x80x94, the sport of golf has never been more appealing than it is at the present time. As a result, more-and-more golf courses are being readied for play each month, and retail golf xe2x80x9cmega-storexe2x80x9d supermarkets are opening weekly to satisfy the amateur""s playing requirements.
As will also be understood, this increased interest in the game has carried with it the need to establish practice areas for play, either as part of the course facility itself, or at a separate, commercially operated driving range. There, the participant typically buys a basket of balls (either at a machine or from the operator of the facility) and then proceeds to carry that basket to the practice area. Experience has shown, however, that in most circumstances, the practicing player usually leaves the empty golf ball basket at the practice area, instead of returning it when finished. The practice facility operator then has to retrieve each and every basket, and has to return then to the front area to be refilled for later use. Depending on location and layout, this becomes somewhat of a chorexe2x80x94especially when it is appreciated that the carrying back of the empty basket may be over a distance of upwards of 50-100 yds. Add to this the fact that there may be 10, 20, 30 and more of these baskets to be recovered, the retrieval process may then necessitate several back-and-forth trips. As the individual baskets are frequently made of metal, weigh upwards of 1 lb. or more each, and stand 5 in. or more high, it will be appreciated that usually only 10-15 of them can be carried at any one timexe2x80x94balancing the baskets between one hand which supports their weight on the lower end, and trying to hold them steady with the other hand at the upper end, all-the-while trying to walk the baskets back to the front-desk area.
Experience has shown, furthermore, that when carrying metal baskets back in this manner, injuries to the fingers holding the metal baskets together frequently occur, in cutting, scratching, scraping, and catching them by, in, and amongst the component parts of the golf ball basket manufacture.
It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide a new and improved way of retrieving these baskets for later re-use.
It is an object of the present invention, also, to provide a new and improved manner of accomplishing this, employable both at the golf course practice area and at the commercial driving range facility.
It is another object of the present invention to provide this retrieval method at an economical cost.
As will become clear from the following description, the present invention relates to a cart similar in some respects to that which a weekend golfer might employ when playing a round of golf. As will be seen, however, rather than a cart to xe2x80x9cpullxe2x80x9d a bag of clubs from tee to green, the cart of the invention is more in the nature of a xe2x80x9cpushxe2x80x9d-cart, on which the recovered golf ball baskets are carried for return.
More particularly, the cart of the invention (which still could be xe2x80x9cpulledxe2x80x9d, as well as being xe2x80x9cpushedxe2x80x9d) includes a rod coupled between central hubs on each of a pair of wheels which join the wheels together as a single assembly. An elongated handle couples to the rod at a vertical angle (preferably substantially perpendicular and substantially at a midpoint of the rod) for receiving a plurality of these golf ball baskets. As will be described, caddy baskets operative with the invention are open at a top end to receive the practice balls, and are closed at an opposing bottom end to hold the balls in positionxe2x80x94but, with the caddy basket having an opening in the bottom of a dimension greater than a cross-section of the handle of the cart so as to fit empty baskets over and down the length of the handle. In accordance with the invention, the caddy basket is selected of a height to cooperate with a handle of 5 ft. length or so, to load 20-30 of the empty baskets at any one time.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the golf ball caddy basket is of a decreasing circular cross-section proceeding from its top end towards its bottom end, in enabling the baskets to be nested one into the other with the bottom end facing downwardly. In this embodiment, the basket may be of a fabricated metal compositionxe2x80x94with the elongated handle being of metal, fiberglass or wood composition, and provided with a rubberized grip.
As will be appreciated then, the practice area worker or the driving range attendant simply wheels the push-pull cart assembly to the area where the caddy baskets have been collecting, slides each basket, bottom end down, on and along the length of the handle, nesting the baskets together. The assembly, with some 20-30 empty baskets in place, is then pushed or pulled back to the vending machine or desk area for the refilling of the baskets for use by the next practicing player.